MADURAI: Condemning the BJP government for not allocating funds for the Madurai AIIMS, cadres of the DMK, Congress, CPM, MDMK and VCK staged a protest on Tuesday. The protesters, led by CPM State Secretary K Balakrishnan, carried a brick, which had ‘Where is AIIMS?’ engraved on it.
“The Union government announced the establishment of AIIMS in 2018, and decided to complete its construction with the support of a Japanese company the next year. Until now, the company has not released the funds and the Centre did not initiate any effort for the construction of AIIMS, Madurai.
Almost 80% of construction has been completed in other states where AIIMS was to be established,” said Balakrishnan, adding that the Centre has not yet released the blueprint of the `5 crore worth administration block.
He further said that even though AIIMS in Madurai was announced when AIADMK was in power, they did not raise any questions against the BJP regarding the delay. “Within a period of eight years, the BJP government has waived loans to a tune of `10.75 crore for the corporates.
In the 2024 election, BJP will be defeated and construction of AIIMS and Sethu Samuthiram will be completed,” he added. Madurai MP S Venkatesan, Virudhunagar MP Manickam Tagore, Ramanathapuram MP Navas Kani, Madurai North MLA G Thalapathi, South MLA M Boominathan and other party functionaries took part in the meeting.